Queen of Ur

Queen Shub-Ad of Ur's tomb was one of the 20th century's biggest archaeological finds, unearthed by Sir Leonard Woolley in the 1920s. In her tomb were three harps, each with the head of a different animal on its sound box: a heifer, a bull and a stag. Woolley carefully recreated the wooden instruments by pouring plaster in the dust that had encased them. The statue in the picture is in a traffic circle in Nasiriyah (Nasiriyah General Hospital in the background right is where Jessica Lynch was held hostage). It is of a stylized Queen Shub-Ad playing her golden harp. Actually, Woolley found her harpist buried with her. I've passed this statue a dozen times and finally had an Iraqi interpreter with me to tell me what it was the last time out.

Here is an interesting link to a poem about the Queen of Ur
http://ragz-international.com/urpoem.htm

And another link I thought was interesting http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0399/9903076.html

This was a quiet catch-up on paperwork day at the office. One quick trip out to Camp Mittica to talk to a Major in the Italian Joint Task Force about a new generator for the testing laboritory of Dhi Qar. The lab has suggested to our Iraqi engineers that they could get their tests out faster and not slow down our construction as much if they had power all day long. Nasiriyah still suffers from scheduled power outages twice a day. Ken and I had lunch with the Brits from Camp Smitty and there was serious talk about setting Ken and Pat up an office out there in Samawah.

Also got a box of chaulk, notebooks, rulers and pens from BSA Troop 273 that we added to a growing stack of school supplies to be given out here.